A conventional air mattress provides an internal ventilation system by supplying ventilating air to a patient. Pressure points along the patient""s body may be periodically relieved while simultaneously receiving conditioned air to thereby comfort the patient. Since air is thermally isulative with poor heat conductivity, the air mattress is unsatisfactory for therapeutically treating those burn patients.
Water bed or gel-filled mattress may then be recommended for cooling and comforting the burn patients. However, when the patient lies down on the water or gel bed, the interface in between the patient""s body and the bed can not be well ventilated with air. The accumulation of moisture between the patient and the bed may cause or deteriorate the pressure ulcer of the patient.
The present inventor has found the drawbacks of the conventional mattress, and invented the present mattress means provided with both gel and air cells.
The object of the present invention is to provide a mattress device including a plurality of dual-fluid fluidizing units juxtapositionally secured in a mattress envelope or encasement; each dual-fluid fluidizing unit consisting of a lower air cell and an upper gel (or gel-like) cell superimposed and secured on the lower air cell, having a plurality of flexible ventilating and baffling tubes formed through each upper gel cell for venting air from the lower air cell to the patient""s body as lying on the upper gel cells for therapeutically treating the patient as synergetically effected by both the air and gel cells.